EMMANUEL Petit can make as big an impact at Chelsea as his French international team-mate Fabien Barthez has done at Manchester United.

EMMANUEL Petit can make as big an impact at Chelsea as his French international team-mate Fabien Barthez has done at Manchester United.

That’s the verdict of Reds boss Sir Alex Ferguson.

Fergie looked set to bring World Cup and Euro 2000 winner Petit to Old Trafford from Barcelona this summer, but in the end the former Arsenal favourite was snapped up by Chelsea for £7m.

The United manager responded to that by breaking the British transfer fee record with the 28.1m signing of Lazio’s Argentinean midfield star Juan Sebastian Veron.

Influential presence

But the Scot has expressed his admiration for Petit on several occasions and is certain the pony-tailed midfielder can have the same kind of positive effect on Claudio Ranieri’s Chelsea side as Barthez had in his first year at United.

He said: “He brings composure and presence to the midfield, he’s a World Cup winner which says it all, and he has that arrogance, not a bad arrogance but an arrogance that says ‘I’m worth being here, I’ve won everything’.

“I think we experienced that with Barthez. Barthez last season was fantastic on the field and in the dressing room, he’s a winner.

“I don’t know Petit in that respect because I haven’t worked with the lad, but I imagine anyone who has won a World Cup brings with them a certain baggage, and a good baggage at that.”

Ferguson also stressed that he is happy with the purchases he has made this summer and is not worried about the fact that he missed out on two more French World Cup and Euro 2000 winners in Bixente Lizarazu and Lillian Thuram.